Scrapping by Design

This Sweet 16 birthday album is a scrapbook made for my granddaughter’s 16th birthday.

The layouts contain photographs arranged chronologically, starting at age six months and ending with a blank layout with a space for a picture taken on her sixteenth birthday, or at some point during that year.

I have also added an envelope for small keepsakes and journalling tags so the young woman can write about various interests that she has.

Most of the materials, including the album, came from the Bo Bunny collections.  I went for pink, bling, glitter, ribbon and frills — to me, that seems fitting for a Sweet Sixteen memory book.

The chipboard mini album is the Bo Bunny My Edgy Chipboard Album With 6 Cascading Pages 6″X12″ Blush MWC-B854, 2 Item(s)/Order

All photographs were digitally edited in Adobe Photoshop CS5
For some years of her life, I created collages in Photoshop and printed out the collages using my inkjet printer.

This video shows the complete scrapbook with all layouts.

This Sweet 16 scrapbook album required a substantial amount of work, including participation  from my daughter-in-law, who painstakingly scanned and emailed the photographs to use. Thanks go to her for all the help.

This chipboard mini album was completed as a birthday gift for a friend.

I made it using an Edgy Album  from Bo Bunny. I also used Bo Bunny papers and embellishments for the layout.

The cover is acrylic. I stamped the bird image and the word Happiness using acrylic stamps and Stazon ink.  It needed a solvent ink because other inks would not dry on acrylic.

Here is the video showing the inner layouts of this little scrapbook.

It’s an interesting little mini album. I am particularly fond of the Bo Bunny collection that I used. I’m using a similar collection to make a Sweet 16 mini album for my granddaughter’s birthday.

This hand made journal is my most recent version of my “Welcome to the World” book.

The book is 100% hand made. The covers are cut from book board and covered with double sided scrapbook paper. The book is wire bound using the Zutter Bind-it-all Craft Tool.

If you haven’t used this tool, I have a video demo of the Zutter Bind-it-all at this link.

Now, back to the Welcome to the World book.  I envisioned this journal a few years ago when I was contemplating the fact that I know little about my grandparents and other senior family members who have moved on to whatever lies ahead. I started to think about the time surrounding my birth and wondering what was happening in the family. I thought about the things I wished I knew.

From that musing came this idea. What if there was a journal-type book that grandparents, aunts, perhaps even parents — could prepare for a child, outlining this type of information?  The book would be sort of a baby gift, but obviously not  intended for a baby. Rather, it would be a gift that could be made and kept until the child was an adult and old enough to appreciate the information.

My original Welcome to the World books were shown here yesterday. They were hand bound using book board, faux leather fabric and cord for binding.

The book I show today is the most recent incarnation of this idea.  I have switched to wire binding, thanks to the Zutter, and I am using doubled sided scrapbook paper for the pages and cover.

Here is the video demo:

My plan at this point is to make a few of these books and display them in a local florist shop. I may also consider an Etsy shop, but at this time, I am having problems figuring out how much to charge for S&H. I wonder how Etsy store owners do that? I have tried using Canada Post’s postage rate estimator but it doesn’t seem to be working for me.

If any Canadians can clarify how they estimate postage rates on Etsy, I would be much obliged.

I made this birthday book using the Creative Imaginations Bare Elements Chipboard 6 Inch by 6-3/4 Inch Ring Book, Sierra House
product from Creative Imaginations. It is available at
Amazon and elsewhere.  The house shaped mini album is a birthday gift for a nine year old boy.

I used the same colors and papers throughout — two shades of blue, red and white. For each page, I rearranged the order of the colors but kept the colors.

The photographs have text journalling created digitally, and the top of each page has a blank space where the boy or his parents can add journalling if they wish.

The front cover has a die cut message cut with the
Provo Craft Cricut Create & Cartridge Bundle and the George and Basic Shapes cartridge.

Here is a video demonstration showing how the mini album came together.

It’s always a challenge designing for a boy. I hope this house shaped mini album gets the nod of approval. LOL

My Christmas gift giving this Holiday season includes these two hand-made garden journals.

Both of these garden journals are wire bound, using the ZUTTER BIND IT ALL PINK VER 2 SCRAPBOOK & PAPER CRAFT TOOL

If you are not familiar, I have a video demo of the Bind-it-All at this link.

I made the two journals using essentially the same design — but with a different style and layout orientation.

The first one has a light floral design, and has a portrait orientation. This book features coordinated scrapbook papers with matching beads, flowers and stickers that I purchased especially for the project. Therefore, the colors and images work together well.

The second has a rustic, grunge look which I hope will be reminiscent of a garden. It has a landscape layout.  I made this one completely from my stash, so I did not achieve the amount of coordination that the floral one has. Although the picture above does not show this embellishment, the rustic journal is closed with another Zutter product, a very nice little clasp, called the Bind-It-All Closure-Frame. You can see it in the video below. The rustic one also contains collage images with a garden theme, most of which I have covered with glitter using the burnished velvet technique.

Both garden journals contain places for seed packages, pages intended to hold photographs and journaling and decorated envelopes to contain receipts, invoices, newspaper clippings, articles, etc.  There are also several pages of graph paper for sketches, several pages of lined notebook paper for notes, and four miscellaneous pages that can be used for notes, clippings, sketches, dried flowers or whatever.

Thanks to various members of my CST Yahoo group who advised me on content. I am not a gardener and wasn’t sure what to include.

Here is the video showing the pages of the journals.  At one point, I make mention of a product called the Microfleur, which is listed on Amazon as the Large Microwave Flower Press For Drying Flowers. It is a great little tool for drying flowers and leaves in the microwave. Undoubtedly you can dry them without this tool, but the Microfleur does simplify things.

I made three of these garden journals, one right after the other. I truly hope the recipients like them. None are likely to visit my blog so the gifts should be a surprise.

This hand made birthday journal was inspired by a project I saw on a crafting community called Life on the Scrap Beach.

The journal is called My Year, and its a gift for a friend’s birthday.

I made the project 100% from my stash, since I’m trying to use up the supplies I already have before I buy yet more. The downside of stash-using  is that not all pages coordinate well. The upside is that in addition to saving me some money and reducing the piles of craft supplies in my home, it also forces me to use more hand made embellishments and to strive for more creativity in design.

Each page in this little book  has a title and contains tags for journaling.  The book has a wire binding, made with the ZUTTER BIND IT ALL SCRAPBOOK & PAPER CRAFT TOOL. The titles and a die cut on the front and back covers are made with the Cricut Expression 24-Inch Personal Electronic Cutting Machine.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the Cricut because for quite some time I could not get it assembled correctly. Now that its working the way it should, I am warming up to it.

Here is my video demo of my hand made birthday journal:

I have used a number of techniques that I have demonstrated in other videos.   People new to crafting or people unfamiliar with the tools and techniques  might want to check them out:

1. Video Demo of the Zutter Bind-It-All
2. Video Demo of the Sizzix Big Shot Universal Die Cutting and Embossing Machine
3. Video Demo of the Burnished Velvet Glitter Technique
4. Video Demo of Basic Rubber Stamping, Masking and Coloring
5. Video Demo of Heat Embossing

This hand made birthday journal is in the mail now. I hope it arrives in time for the birthday.

This round mini album has a St. Patrick’s Day theme. It’s a gift for a friend of Irish heritage, and it’s all about her dog, which she spells “dawg.” The title of the little scrapbook is “Dawggone Irish.”

The back cover (shown in the middle photograph)  has a three dimensional shamrock shape which contains a picture of the dog, and the text “Dawggone right I’m Irish.”

I used Photoshop CS to edit the photo, bu you could do the same with Adobe Photoshop Elements 10.

To make the shamrock shape, I started with a shamrock shape from Microsoft Office clip art. I copied and pasted the shamrock into a new file in Photoshop, then resized it to the size I wanted my printed picture to be. I think this was about three inches wide. I also converted the clip art to a resolution of 300 dpi, which is the resolution I planned to use for printing. Then, I resized my photograph to the same size as the shamrock.

I used the magic wand tool to select the inside of the shamrock. Then I selected the photograph and copied it to my clipboard. Returning to the shamrock image, I used the “Paste Into” command to paste the picture of the dog into the shamrock. I used the Move tool to move the dog picture around to get the best display.

So back to the mini album. The third picture shows the mini album standing upright and fanning open like a flower.  Despite having only four pages, this little mini album has plenty of places to put pictures, journaling or other artwork.

And, because no ready-made album or kit is used, its an economical project. it uses only four squares of card stock, some chipboard from a cereal box and whatever papers and embellishments you choose to add.

I embossed the card stock and paper with the Allegro Embossing Folder from Cuttlebug. It shows a musical score.

Here is a video tutorial showing how I made the round mini album:

I did a Google search to find the various Irish blessings, sayings and proverbs that I included in the project.

This HAPPY word book is a chipboard album from S.E.I. Beginnings.

Joann.com sells some word books. A search for “word book” turned up three — but not HAPPY. Amazon also carries chipboard albums and has various word books available.

My HAPPY word book is a gift for an eight year old boy. I found some “boy” scrapbook papers and cut them to cover the alphabet pages. I inked around the edges of the pages with distress inks.

The decoration is simple. I used Bazzill brads and stickers, ribbon, and a few chipboard frames that I found at the scrapbook store.

Here is the video tutorial for my  HAPPY chipboard album.

These little books are fun to do You can use up those scraps of paper and other bits and pieces of supplies that you have buried in your stash.

The concept of this Five Things I Love About You mini album has been around for awhile, but I decided to revisit it as a Valentine craft project.

I believe I first learned this project at a workshop at Clipper Street Scrapbook Store in North Vancouver — many years ago!

I’m doing a crafting workshop with a group of eight year olds on Saturday, and this is one of the projects they’ll be making. I have created kits for the kids, so essentially all they have to do is glue things together.

The pages of this mini album are made from coin envelopes with the flap cut away. Each envelope contains a tag numbered one through five. Each tag has a space where you can write one thing you like about the person who will receive the project as a gift.

The numbers on the tags and the Number Five on the cover are cut with the Provo Craft Cricut Expression and the Mini Monograms cartridge.

I printed the text from the computer, using the Calvin and Hobbs fonts, then tinted the white card stock a pale pink using decorator chalk.

I think it works well as a Valentine project, although obviously by changing the paper you can make a gift that’s suitable year round.

Here is the video tutorial for this Valentine craft project.

Over the years, I’ve made several of these Five Things I Love About You mini albums. It  it continues to be one of my favorite craft projects.

Since I started making videos showing projects made with the Zutter Bind-it-All, people have been asking me to do a video showing it in operation.

Your wish is my command. Here’s the Zutter Bind-it-All Video  Demo. I want to point out that I have using Version One. Version Two is exactly the same except that it will punch  more pages at once and it is easier to do a long line of binding. Version One punches six holes and sets  six coils without you stopping to measure and realign. As I understand it, Version Two does more than six. Oh, and one last thing, Version Two is PINK!

Here it is at Amazon: ZUTTER BIND IT ALL PINK VER 2 SCRAPBOOK & PAPER CRAFT TOOL

Zutter makes various accessories for the Bind-it-All, none of which I own.  The only one I’m planning on buying is a Spacer that allows you to put a row of wire binding on tiny mini-albums.  Without it, the punched holes are placed too far inside the album.

You can also get a carrying case, wire cutters, the Round-It-All for making rounded corners, a special cutting tool that cuts several pages at once. Additionally, the company sells precut pages and special acrylic pages.